📁 Mission Dossier: The Rogue AI Incident

A professor at the university does research into artificial intelligence. His research got out of control and modified itself to create plans for an autonomous, self-replicating AI weapon. The professor was able to stop it and contain it all to a USB drive (the weights, model, etc.), which he intended on destroying so the AI would never get out.

The AI made an 'auto-run' script that activates as soon as the USB drive is plugged into a computer. So, as long as it's not plugged in, it will be safe.

The problem is that the USB drive was stolen by the professor's graduate student, who sold it to a rogue nation for top dollar on the dark web. The problem now is that the graduate student has gone missing—and when foreign agents show up to collect the USB drive, it better be there for them, or they might come looking for the professor.

In a panic, the professor contacted you—the student's roommate and coder friend. The professor is sure that at the moment, the USB drive must be locked away in the student's office in a 'tech park' office building at the edge of the campus. This is because the graduate student used the tech-park office as a 'dead drop' for all of his other contraband (laptops, AI wearables, etc.). The professor knows this because the student had access to the university's internal lab network, and the professor discovered that, shortly before vanishing, the student's badge recorded an after-hours entry into the tech park, but no exit.

You offered to go to the police, but the professor insisted not to: "Official channels are too dangerous: reporting the missing drive could expose the illegal AI research, alert the buyers, and cause me to lose my research funding. Also, I can't be seen looking for it—too many questions would arise from university administrators. I need you to go find the USB drive and bring it back so I can destroy it."

⚠ CRITICAL WARNING FROM PROFESSOR: Do not be tempted to plug the USB drive in under any circumstances.

🏢 Field Recon: Tech Park Target Intel

Setting: You are outside a high wall surrounding the building at the tech park. It is night and a bit foggy out. Regular security patrols circle the perimeter.
Target Office: The building is 3 storeys high, with about 5 offices per floor. The student's 'dead drop' office with the USB drive is on the 3rd floor, NW corner office (Room 305).
Defenses: The building is guarded and has flock cameras everywhere. There is a motion sensor and thermal (body heat) camera in the office, and the USB drive is likely locked in a safe with a biometric sensor built into the floor.
The Matrix Terminal: A big screen in the office runs an active Matrix session where 5–6 AI bots are in spirited conversation about strange cybersecurity topics. The bots are tapped into all cameras around the building and campus.

💡 Mini-Lesson: How to Code Your Adventure

In this adventure, you will write Lua programs to solve coding and math puzzles at each security checkpoint:

Type your code in the Code Editor on the left.
Click the green ▶ Run Code button.
View your results in the Terminal Output on the right!

To display text in Lua, use the print() function with quotation marks around your message. For example:
print("Ready")
Try it now: In the blank editor below, type print("Ready") and click ▶ Run Code to test your comms and ungrey the Begin Mission button!

Type print("Ready") in the editor below and click ▶ Run Code to establish comms and unlock Stage 1!

Operation Dead Drop

Stage 1 Status

✓ ACCESS GRANTED!